Dell Optiplex 3050 Small Form Desktop (Refurb): i5-6500, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD

Doait

Jun 25, 2022 05:16 PM

88 Posts

Joined Dec 2016

DoaitJun 25, 2022 05:16 PM

88 Posts

Quote from g725s

:

Why not?

Basically, Microsoft says so.

Horace

Jun 25, 2022 05:29 PM

1,440 Posts

Joined Sep 2003

HoraceJun 25, 2022 05:29 PM

1,440 Posts

Quote from Yell0w

:

What do you recommend?

Depends on your requirements (space, power, noise, compute, expandability, etc). For pure NAS duties, a 4-bay QNAP/Synology would work well, albeit a bit pricey. You could also get a low powered Celeron or similar system, and roll your own in a Fractal Node 304 or similar NAS-centric case.

Derekisthematrix

Jun 25, 2022 05:36 PM

256 Posts

Joined Dec 2015

DerekisthematrixJun 25, 2022 05:36 PM

256 Posts

The Acer deal for $200 is better.

1

Horace

Jun 25, 2022 05:44 PM

1,440 Posts

Joined Sep 2003

HoraceJun 25, 2022 05:44 PM

1,440 Posts

Quote from Giantcrazy

:

$5 a month x the lifetime of a firewall (figure 2-3 years) = $120 to $180 saved. And that's a very conservative estimate - I bought a Lenovo USFF that sits at 12W idle for my FIOS gigabit connection and it runs OPNSense just fine. The difference between that 12W at idle and your 100W is 88W, 24x7 - at 25c/kwh that's running you nearly $15 a month more in electricity, which over the course of 3 years is $540.

Plus, spending extra on the device itself - here's another deal, a full 50 dollars less than this with considerably lower at-idle energy and heat requirements:

https://slickdeals.net/f/15861442-acer-recertified-xc-830-uw91-slim-desktop-j4125-quad-core-4gb-ddr4...

The question boils down to one of requirements - it's not a matter of 'more robust' - it's more compute power that you may or may not need. pfSense/OPNSense are both built to run on low spec equipment. Unless you're running gigabit ethernet firewall speeds and need a lot of content inspection/filtering (suricata, etc.), you won't use the extra compute capacity, not by a longshot. So why pay for the extra up front cost, energy and heating required if you don't need it?

All good points, but I think you and the previous poster have very different use cases. It's not just a matter of compute power: A fairly significant amount of the 100W power budget in that other system is from the SAS HDDs, and associated controller/HBA and fans, which would not need to be present in a pure firewall appliance.

Giantcrazy

Jun 25, 2022 06:08 PM

3,514 Posts

Joined Sep 2006

GiantcrazyJun 25, 2022 06:08 PM

3,514 Posts

Quote from Horace

:

All good points, but I think you and the previous poster have very different use cases. It's not just a matter of compute power: A fairly significant amount of the 100W power budget in that other system is from the SAS HDDs, and associated controller/HBA and fans, which would not need to be present in a pure firewall appliance.

That's true - however, he was responding to my post in reply to someone asking specifically about a box for OPNSense. And my post was pretty clear - not a bad box, but you have to ask whether you need the extras that you're paying for, in terms of initial cost, power consumption, space and heat.

1

WittyHose5503

Jun 25, 2022 06:17 PM

90 Posts

Joined Jun 2022

WittyHose5503Jun 25, 2022 06:17 PM

90 Posts

Quote from Doait

:

These can not be upgraded to Windows 11 (supported by MS).

Can I ask why we all care about Windows 11? I have Windows 7 on one of my old machines and it still gets updates.

2

dwooley

Jun 25, 2022 06:22 PM

59 Posts

Joined Aug 2006

dwooleyJun 25, 2022 06:22 PM

59 Posts

How does it compare wit this posted few weeks ago and $30 more expensive? https://slickdeals.net/f/15823579-dell-refurbished-optiplex-7050-mff-desktop-i5-6600t-128gb-ssd-8gb-win-10-pro-199-free-s-h?src=SiteSearch

demiurg

Jun 25, 2022 10:21 PM

681 Posts

Joined Jun 2011

demiurgJun 25, 2022 10:21 PM

681 Posts

Quote from mfmruizv

:

Is this at shopgoodwill.com not seeing any other rec for home/jellyfin server for 1080

What I did is bookmark a couple of searches like "SFF" and "intel i3-6" and hit on it that way.
Then I did the old style ebay bidding of upping my bid at the last moment.

But yes, that's the site. Felt kind of fun to buy that way, like ye olde times of online bidding

1

Horace

Jun 26, 2022 12:22 AM

1,440 Posts

Joined Sep 2003

HoraceJun 26, 2022 12:22 AM

1,440 Posts

Quote from dwooley

:

How does it compare wit this posted few weeks ago and $30 more expensive? https://slickdeals.net/f/15823579-dell-refurbished-optiplex-7050-mff-desktop-i5-6600t-128gb-ssd-8gb-...

You're basically trading RAM and SSD capacity for physical size, and paying a premium for it. The Micro version has a very slightly faster processor, half the RAM and SSD capacity, but comes in at a much smaller 1L "Micro" form factor. This one has a very slightly slower processor, double the RAM and SSD capacity, but comes in at a much larger ~8L "SFF" form factor. If you have the space, this is the better deal.

wiffle

Jun 26, 2022 01:27 AM

5,582 Posts

Joined Dec 2014

wiffleJun 26, 2022 01:27 AM

5,582 Posts

Quote from Horace

:

It depends on your content and whether or not you need transcoding capabilities. I have a Lenovo i5-6500t based system that can handle 10-20 simultaneous 1080p streams using QuickSync hardware transcoding (and that's with the lower powered, slower T version CPU). Just be aware that the 6th gen implementation of QS does not have support for 10-bit HVEC/H.265 [wikipedia.org]. If you don't have a need to transcode 10-bit HVEC/H.265 content, this would work well. Otherwise, I'd look for at least a 7th gen based system.

Good advice. I have a 7th gen g4560 and can verify that HEVC plays fine. I use Kodi and PlexKodiConnect add-on. Plex server on same machine.

GrimJet

Jun 26, 2022 02:00 AM

898 Posts

Joined Jul 2007

GrimJetJun 26, 2022 02:00 AM

898 Posts

Quote from Giantcrazy

:

$5 a month x the lifetime of a firewall (figure 2-3 years) = $120 to $180 saved. And that's a very conservative estimate - I bought a Lenovo USFF that sits at 12W idle for my FIOS gigabit connection and it runs OPNSense just fine. The difference between that 12W at idle and your 100W is 88W, 24x7 - at 25c/kwh that's running you nearly $15 a month more in electricity, which over the course of 3 years is $540.

Plus, spending extra on the device itself - here's another deal, a full 50 dollars less than this with considerably lower at-idle energy and heat requirements:

https://slickdeals.net/f/15861442-acer-recertified-xc-830-uw91-slim-desktop-j4125-quad-core-4gb-ddr4-256gb-pcie-ssd-802-11ac-4k-hdmi-114-39?src=frontpage

The question boils down to one of requirements - it's not a matter of 'more robust' - it's more compute power that you may or may not need. pfSense/OPNSense are both built to run on low spec equipment. Unless you're running gigabit ethernet firewall speeds and need a lot of content inspection/filtering (suricata, etc.), you won't use the extra compute capacity, not by a longshot. So why pay for the extra up front cost, energy and heating required if you don't need it?

My bad, I thought you were one of the ones talking about using it as a nas. You're right, for a firewall all that is overkill.

Double digit inflation is gonna make that $550 look real bad in 5 years.. it'll be ugly.

paul3000

Jun 26, 2022 03:29 PM

321 Posts

Joined Dec 2015

paul3000Jun 26, 2022 03:29 PM

321 Posts

Quote from Derekisthematrix

:

The Acer deal for $200 is better.

Agreed, I ordered the Acer. Going to use it for streaming Steam games from my other PC plus regular web browsing and Discord. Intel 6th Gen is pretty old right now.

SlickDealingInNYC

Jun 26, 2022 03:32 PM

2,094 Posts

Joined Jul 2014

SlickDealingInNYCJun 26, 2022 03:32 PM

2,094 Posts

I'm looking for <$200 SFF to watch Netflix, YouTube and other streams, videos (1080p MKVs, etc). Any recommendations with link?

1

grndslm

Jun 26, 2022 07:00 PM

217 Posts

Joined May 2009

grndslmJun 26, 2022 07:00 PM

217 Posts

Quote from SlickDealingInNYC

:

I'm looking for <$200 SFF to watch Netflix, YouTube and other streams, videos (1080p MKVs, etc). Any recommendations with link?

How about a Roku, FireStick, Nvidia Shield Pro, virtually any Android TV Box, etc.....

Videos don't require much hardware at all...

1

holymoly

Jun 27, 2022 12:19 PM

417 Posts

Joined Dec 2009

holymolyJun 27, 2022 12:19 PM

417 Posts

You can get an older gen Intel SFF for less than $100 pretty easily on eBay. At a local surplus place they regularly let go 4th gen or older machines for ~$30. I got my i7-7700 machine their for $100 for transcoding... Bottom line is I wouldn't pay more than $50 for this thing. For $170 I'd expect a 8th gen, def at least a 7

Also the whole Windows 11 not being supported is irrelevant. I have win 11 on much older hardware than this. If you search how to bypass requirements it's all over Google/YouTube

1

Dell Optiplex 3050 Small Form Desktop (Refurb): i5-6500, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD

$170

$650

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